There are no applications related to this application filed in this or any foreign country.
Bicycle enthusiasts often transport their bicycles to enjoyable locations by using a rack secured to the rear of a car, truck or sport utility vehicle; The bicycle is therefore exposed to the weather, road dirt and wind, hot exhaust, road salt and oil, as well as damage due to movement and collision with the vehicle. Since an ever-increasing number of bicycles are much more expensive than previously, the damage due to corrosion, water damage to leather seats and contamination of chains, sprockets and other components is particularly troubling. Moreover, many of the most enthusiastic bicycle riders have premium bicycles and automobiles, resulting in a greater cost to any damage incurred.
A number of protective enclosures are known; including a limited number of covers designed for use with vehicle-mounted bicycle racks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,744 issued to Joslyn discloses a covering which is adapted to cover a bike carried on a rack behind a car. Despite having several characteristics which tend to protect a bicycle being carried, the above-described cover have significant drawbacks when used to protect a bicycle being carried behind a car or truck. Due to the size of the bike, and therefore the size of the cover, the taillights and license plate of the vehicle are totally obscured by the cover. Moreover, known covers fail to provide additional storage space for the gear that is often associated with the sport of cycling. Further, known covers fail to provide distinctly formed handlebar enclosures and seat extension. As a result, these covers tends to be far looser, and during travel tends to flap excessively in the wind, resulting in chafing and rubbing between the bike and the flapping bag. And additionally, known bicycle covers have failed to adapt to the protection of multiple bicycles, which are frequently carried on a single rack.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle rack that can solve the problem of obscured taillights, that provides a novel means to store additional gear out of the weather and elements, which provides distinctly defined handlebar enclosures, and which is adaptable for use with multiple bicycles.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus that satisfies the above needs. A novel bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle rack is disclosed that provides a solution to the problem of obscured taillights, which provides additional storage space for gear and which is adaptable for use with multiple bicycles.
A preferred version of the bicycle cover provides some or all of the following structures.
(A) Front and rear panels, each defining a front tire cover region, a rear tire cover region and a pedal cover region, the panels connected along a lower perimeter.
(B) A hanging storage bag, carried between the front panel and the rear panel.
(C) Two handlebar enclosures, one each carried by the front and rear panels.
(D) A zipper having left and right slides traveling on zipper tracks carried by an upper perimeter of the left and the right panels.
(E) Left and right taillight assemblies, each supported by a bracket passing through holes defined in the front and rear panels.
(H) A reinforcing panel, carried by each of the pedal cover regions of the front and rear covers.
(I) A tire strap, carried within the front and rear panels and between the tires of a bicycle enclosed by the cover, maintains the alignment of tires of the bicycle, thereby maintaining the taillight assemblies in the correct alignment.
(J) A reflector, carried on the outside surface of the rear panel.
(K) Left and right support loops, sewn between the lower perimeter of the front and rear panels, each support loop having an inner loop carried between the front and rear panels and an outer loop hanging from the lower perimeter.
It is therefore a primary advantage of the present invention to provide a novel bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle support rack which provides an auxiliary taillight assembly, thereby overcoming the drawback of covering the vehicle""s taillights.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a novel bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle support rack which provides internal storage areas.
Another advantage of the present invention is to provide a novel bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle support rack which provides two handlebar enclosures defined in the cover, which allows the front and rear panels of the cover to more tightly conform to the sides of the bike than would otherwise be possible if the sides of the cover were required to billow out to enclose the handlebars.
A still further advantage of the present invention is to provide a novel bicycle cover adapted for use with a vehicle-mounted bicycle support rack that is adapted for use with bike racks having either twin support arms or a single center support arm.